Pursuing an enigma

April 30, 2006|RON BERNAS Detroit Free Press

A mysterious death and its hideous aftermath tie three families together and change a small Kansas town forever in Nancy Pickard's suspenseful new novel, "The Virgin of Small Plains." Two teens and their father the sheriff find a beautiful young woman dead and frozen in the snow during a blizzard. She's brought to the town's doctor, who proceeds to bash her face in with a baseball bat. That's the end of it, they think. But watching the shocking mutilation is teenage Mitch, who was hiding in the doctor's closet looking for a condom to steal. He was about to lose his innocence, and boy, does he. The next morning, Mitch is ushered out of town by his father and told never to talk about what he saw: Who would believe a teen's accusations against the town's powerful doctor and sheriff? Seventeen years later, little has changed in Small Plains. Abby, Mitch's childhood sweetheart, is still grappling with his disappearance. She's taken up with Patrick, the former sheriff's ne'er-do-well son, partly because there are so few options in the town, but mostly because she sees no future with him and she clings to the hope Mitch will return. Mitch does. He's mad as hell at the town that decided he was expendable for wanting to tell the truth. He comes to visit his mother's grave but stays to learn what happened that night. The answers are not what he expected. One thing that doesn't fully work is the myth that has grown up around the dead girl, who remained unidentified, but becomes known as the Virgin. The people of Small Plains buried her, and residents there say, in gratitude, she grants miracles. It's this mystical input that should infuse the book with depth and heart, but it doesn't. It seems to stand alone, not quite part of the full picture. Though it's a big flaw, "Virgin" still stands out from the pack.